When Opportunity Strikes

One of the New Mexico-based community organizations I support is the Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico.

While attending an annual volunteer appreciation dinner, I had a chance to get my picture with a favorite ambassador of the house, Ellie Mae. It has become a bit of a tradition for me and Ellie Mae to get a picture together in front of the RMHC-NM runway banner.

How much fun can you have taking a picture with a Welsh Corgi dog? After taking one standing beside and another kneeling down next to Ellie Mae, it was clear she had had enough and laid down on her side. So did I. It was a fun picture that would soon populate on my personal Facebook page when I posted the first photo of Ellie Mae and me.

That is when opportunity struck!

Within minutes some close friends in the public relations industry started a virtual “pile on” of how entertained they were by the picture.

I took the opportunity and declared that I would donate $100 to RMHC-NM to remove the picture (knowing I could full well delete it from my feed at any time). My friend Larry pledged an equal amount to have it become my profile picture for 30 days. Next thing I knew, other friends jumped in and VOILA! $400 was raised for RMHC-NM.

Moral of the story: you never know when opportunity will strike to support a great cause, but we should all keep an eye out for those opportunities every chance we get.